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These five watercolours of the port of Le Treport and the nearby town of Eu in Normandy record Turner's last journey to the Continent in 1845. During this visit Turner was invited to dine at the chateau of Eu by the French king, Louis-Philippe, whom he had known many years earlier. Ruskin's descriptions of these works concentrate on the technical achievement by which they were brought about. For example, he notes that the cliff in no.1 'is a masterpiece of drawing; it is not possible with the given number of touches to indicate more faithfully the form of a chalk precipice, or the way it breaks into the turf at its brow.'

Catalogue entry

Robert Upstone identifies this sketch as a view from the harbour at Le Tréport towards the Church of St-Jacques.1 The structure is silhouetted in grey against a light-blue sky and contrasts with the dazzling white of the chalk cliffs which has been created with an area of ‘reserved’ blank paper.2

The slightly shaved-off ‘CCCLIX–17’ stamped in black ink at the bottom right of the sketch suggests that the sheet has been trimmed.

Verso:

Blank; except for patches of watercolour and various endorsement marks. Towards the bottom centre ‘ccclix. 17’ and a semi-inverted ‘67’ have been inscribed in pencil. The Turner Bequest monogram has been stamped in black ink above ‘CCCLIX – 17’ to the bottom left of the sheet.